Many types of buildings, such as offices, homes, stations, garages, and sheds, require panels for regulating some variable property of the structure. Variable properties include attributes such as the temperature of the rooms inside an office or home, the status of an alarm system, the amount of electricity used by a building or home, the amount of lighting or the status of a fountain in a park, or the status of a sign in a station.
The variable properties of manmade structures are often monitored and regulated by a control panel mounted on a wall. Control panels may include, for example, light switches, security panels, keyboards, thermostats, or electrical meters, as well as other types of related panels or displays. The designated operator or user of a control panel may have an interest in preventing others from manipulating or viewing the status of these control panels. Sometimes there simply exists a fundamental desire to provide an esthetically pleasing cover over an unsightly panel such as a thermostat on a home wall.